


Earth 33: Outlaws - Put To Rest, Part 1

by JayEclipse



Series: Earth 33: Outlaws - Snippets [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Emotional, Funerals, Gen, Good Grandparent Alfred Pennyworth, Grief, It Is A Funeral Fic, Minor Character Death, Past Drug Addiction, Past Poverty, Poverty, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 08:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20597642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayEclipse/pseuds/JayEclipse
Summary: The funeral of Willis and Catherine Todd.





	Earth 33: Outlaws - Put To Rest, Part 1

It was a rainy morning in Gotham city, even up Wayne state things were dreary. Jason was in this room with the blinds shut and only his desk lamp on, giving the room a dim light. He didn’t need much more to get in his suit. The weather felt appropriate, as that day was the day he would be able to put his birth family to rest. Bruce had tracked down his mom’s body, apparently it had been in the morgue awaiting identification. His dad’s body however couldn’t be tracked down, not even with all of Bruces resources. 

He stared at himself in the mirror as he tried to tie his bowtie. He hated how every time he had to put one on he either had to get Bruce or Alfred’s help or it had to be a clip on. Such a little thing but he felt like immediately gave him away as a street kid, the kinda kid who had never been taken anywhere fancy and whose best clothing used to be a t-shirt that had no grease stains on it. It felt like a stupidly small thing to be upset by, but really that was just the tip of the iceberg. He loved his new life at Wayne manor with Bruce and Alfred, but he didn’t fit in, he didn’t know how to do any of the things they did on a daily basis. From what forks were for what to apparently common words that sounds pretentious to him, like the word pretentious, to him stuck up worked just as well.

The damn bow just wouldn’t stay how it was supposed too, it flopped down, it was crooked, it was wrong. He had a few tears of frustration forming and he hit the wall next to the mirror. Why couldn’t he just get this small little thing right?! Why couldn’t he at least be able to show up at his mother’s grave able to do something so small that she probably never thought he’d get the chance to learn?!

There was a soft knock on the door before it was opened by Alfred. “Master Jason, is there anything you need help with?”

Jason turned to him, more looking him in the legs than the face. He limply held the bowtie up next to him.

Alfred briskly walked over and set a hand on Jason’s shoulder as he quickly straightened out a few things with his other hand. He then took the bowtie and tied it on to Jason.

“Thank you..” it came out quietly but he was sure Alfred could hear him.

“Of course, Master Jason.” There was a gentle and caring smile on his face as he looked at Jason that turned to a neutral expression as he asked. “So do you think you’re ready to go?”

Jason took a pause before he nodded his head.

Alfred guided him out of the empty manor, Bruce had went ahead of them to make sure everything was ready. It wasn’t too disconcerting, in Jason’s mind the manor always seemed too empty with only him, Alfred and Bruce in it. When Dick and Barbara were around it was a little better but he almost wished there were more people that would stay there.

He stayed silent in the car ride. Thinking about his parents, they both deserved so much better than what they got, they were victims of circumstance, if they were born to two middle class families they’d be living happy lives, his mom might be living out her dream to see the world and his dad would get to see her happy, instead of yelling at each other out of stress till he got caught. Though they might not have even met, the story of how they met, one of his mom’s favorites to tell him before she lost control, was simple. She was at the store and was three dollars short, and his dad stepped in and helped her. Not exactly most people’s prince charming sweep you off your feet but in crime alley it was the best you could hope for. Why was he the only one that got lucky, they had been both capable adults trying their best but they failed and died. He stayed off the wrong streets thanks to luck, got tiny amounts of pity and there for money from a couple passers by when things looked bad, and he found the batmobile in that alley that night and had the guts to try and jack the tires. If it weren’t for luck he probably would be in the morgue right next to his mom.

The drive was a short one. The private graveyard the Waynes owned was not far at all from the manor. At first he had found it strange to have private graveyard but Alfred had explained how the Waynes had lived in the city since almost the beginning of the city, and always had placed a strong focus on family. So never being far from them was important. That had left some confusion still in him, but now that his own family was being laid to rest there, nearby where Dick’s parents were. He understood it completely.

They made their way through the damp grass and haunting grounds. Headstones and statues of angels litter the ground they walked next to. All of them well kept, in fact everything was well kept, there was not even a weed in between the stones paving the paths. There were no dead flowers at any grave, and the moss and overgrowth only remained on the trees and other natural elements, none of the stone nor the few benches added through the years had a spot of plant life on them.

Bruce was standing by the two caskets, the picture stand with a photo of his parents, actually happy for once in their lives, the photo itself was one of the few things he had taken with him when he left home. There were also flowers all around both the caskets, beautiful flowers that probably costed more than either of them had ever had on hand at one time. Bruce noticed them approaching and made a nod of acknowledgment. There was no one else present, they had decided against getting a priest and his parents didn’t have any close family or friends to invite.

Jason approached the two caskets, his moms was open, her body somehow looked better than she had the days leading up to her death. She actually had color to her face and a peaceful expression, her body at last empty of the poison that she had taken in life. His dads casket was closed, there was nothing in it, he knew that, but it served as a placeholder till they could find his body and reunite him with his dear Cathy.

He ran his hand lightly across her face, it felt freezing, thanks to the rain. And it felt stiff, thanks to how it was preserved. Nothing like how she had been when she was alive. Back then she might have been a bit cold, and clammy. But there had been some softness, some warmth to her, even on her worse days. Or maybe his memory was lying to him, painting a picture he could live with, one where she hadn't been practically dead for weeks before she had stopped breathing.

“Mom… I’m so sorry I couldn't take better care of you.” Tears were welling up in his eyes. He could tell both Bruce and Alfred watched from a couple paces behind him, trying to give him his space. “And I’m so sorry i left you there, i didn’t know what to do!.... So i just ran, i should have gotten someone, i shouldn’t have left you there to just end up sitting in a freezer waiting for your own name to be given to you.”

He could hear Bruce begin to speak but then stop. He figured Alfred had shot him a look, Alfred was probably one of the few people on earth that could get him to stop.

“I’ll find dad so he can be with you, I think you’d like that, right?” The tears were streaming down his face and he could feel his nose sniffle.

Jason pulled out two items from his pocket, an old picture from when he was a toddler of her and him smiling and playing, it had been taken by his dad and it was the other picture he had taken from the home. And an envelope, with 200 hundred dollars and a plane ticket to france, he knew she would have appreciated both things greatly. He gently placed both the picture and the envelope in her hands and then took a couple steps back.

He felt a firm hand on his shoulder, he nearly flinched, he was still wired for the streets, not someone caring for him and comforting him. Bruce pulled him into a side hug.

They stood there for a few minutes, Jason progressing from tears just streaming down his face into full blown sobbing and the hug progressing from just a side hug to a full out embrace. Jason mumbled his guilt over what had happened and Bruce offered what words of comfort he could. He clearly while being an empathic person, had never had to deal with some of the problems that Jaso had faced everyday. There was a gap between the two of them, but there was a bridge of a mutual understanding of loss, and bad luck, bad bad luck. And being a son without his parents.


End file.
